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Mark T. Williams

Mark Thomas Williams (born August 19, 1963) is an academic, financial author, columnist and risk management expert. He is a faculty member in the Finance Department at Boston University where he teaches courses in banking, risk management and capital market activities. In 2015, he co-authored a report with Harry Markopolos, the Bernie Madoff whistleblower about the growing risks associated with the MBTA pension.[1]

Mark T. Williams

Boston University Questrom School of Business

Born

(1963-08-19) August 19, 1963 (age 54)

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In 1985, he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from the University of Delaware.[2] He became a bank trust officer for Wilmington Trust Company and joined TD Banknorth in 1987. In 1993 he earned a Master of Business Administration from Boston University and joined the Federal Reserve Bank as an examiner in Boston and San Francisco. In 1997 he joined Citizens Power LLC, a Boston-based energy trading company and became a senior vice president, Head of Global Risk Management.[3] Since 2002, he has been on the faculty of Boston University as Executive-in-Residence/Master Lecturer.[4]

Williams is a member of the Standard & Poor’s Academic Council, a senior advisor at the Brattle Group[5] and is on the advisory board of Appleton Partners, a Boston-based private wealth management firm.[6]

He said in the testimony, "to transform Bitcoin into a virtual currency would require regulation, centralization, creation of a legal framework and strong regulatory oversight." He raised concerns about Bitcoin, including lack of consumer protection, it being a high-risk virtual commodity, having an artificially inflated price, extreme hoarding, hyped demand, high potential for market manipulation, and fraud.[35][36] On April 2, 2014, Williams provided congressional testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business discussing the 10 major risks associated with Bitcoin.[37] On October 21, 2014 he presented on virtual currencies at The World Bank and on April 23, 2015 at the Bretton Woods Committee.[38] The Bitcoin community remains critical of his concerns.[39][40] Williams also continues to assert that the virtual currency is in a hyper bubble and will eventually suffer a price collapse.[39] In 2013, after Bitcoin peaked at $1,200, Williams predicted that it was in a bubble and would trade for less than 10 dollars by mid-2014.[41] On January 29, 2014, he provided risk testimony before the New York State Department of Financial Services hearing on virtual currencies.[42] Bitcoin prices dropped by over 50% but bottomed out above $200 through 2014 and didn't reached $10 like he said it would.[43] Other academics including Robert Shiller also consider Bitcoin a speculative bubble.[44]

Williams, Mark T. Uncontrolled Risk: The Lessons of Lehman Brothers and How Systemic Risk Can Still Bring Down the World Financial System. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010.[45] Chinese Version Published McGraw Hill, 2014.